I'M APPOSITIVE: A wee little challenge

[annaswirls]

Sorry I am going challenge crazy.

An appositive is a word or group of words that explain the original word in a little more detail. For instance, if you write my grandmother, Stella, you have created a noun appositive for my grandmother, since Stella is also a noun. But you may want to tell us more, to use a group of words to describe her: My grandmother, a tiny woman with long white hair and the face of a Botticelli angel. Now you've used a noun phrase appositive.

From this small example, we hope you might begin to see some of the possibilities of using appositives. Appositives are a way to say more, to go further in the implications of your thought or the details of your memory or experience. They're a way of digging in, a process of discovery at the level of syntax, or sentence structure.

For practice in recognizing appositives, here are some lines of poetry taken from several writers. The original word or phrase that's being added to is blue, while the appositive (or appositives sometimes there's more than one) is in red. Notice how in each case, the appositive tells us more, extends and deepens and clarifies the writers original thought or image:

They crowded their rookery, the dilapidated outcrop
the ocean gives a bubble-top of glass to at high tide
~ Marc Jarman, Awakened by Sea Lions

I watch you watching the snake
or gathering the fallen bird,
the dog in the road, those stiff bodies
from whom you cannot withhold your tenderness.
~ Ellen Bryant Voigt, Rescue

what, anyway,
was that sticky infusion, that rank flavor of blood, that poetry,
by which I lived
~ Galway Kinnell, The Bear

Ive tried to seal it in,
that cross-grained knot
on the opposite wall.
~ Stanley Kunitz, The Knot

What did you fear in me, the child who wore
your hair, the woman who let that black hair
grow long as a banner of darkness
~ Marge Piercy, My Mothers Body


Not all appositives are nouns; verbs can be set against other verbs, prepositional phrases beside other prepositional phrases, various kinds of clauses beside other clauses. If were confusing you, don't worry. Whats important is to be able to recognize appositives and be able to work them into your own writing.

Below are some sample sentences that use appositives; study them, and then complete the blanks with your own appositives:

I will post a few. Feel free to fill in the blanks or to make your own examples.

~ Text and exercise from "The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry" by Kim Addonizio & Dorianne Laux

 

[annaswirls]

MODEL: I wanted to return to that place, the tiny fishing village in Mexico.

PRACTICE: I wanted to return to that place, __________________________________.

 

[annaswirls]

MODEL: I remember the scent of my father, the cologne and cigarettes, the whisky on his breath.


PRACTICE: I remember the scent of my father, _______________________________.

 

[annaswirls]

MODEL: All that I love tonight -- your body curled beside mine, the vase of white lilies, the one bird calling from the yard -- might be lost tomorrow.


PRACTICE: All that I love tonight, _________________________________________
__________________________________________________, might be lost tomorrow.

 

[annaswirls]

MODEL: If you look at the ugliness of the world -- at the homeless woman lying in a doorway, at her dress of rags and bed of old newspapers you might see a kind of beauty.


PRACTICE: If you look at the ugliness of the world -- __________________________
___________________________________________ -- you might see a kind of beauty.

 

[annaswirls]

Attempt #1

MODEL: I wanted to return to that place, the tiny fishing village in Mexico.


PRACTICE: I wanted to return to that place, that suspended bridge across the Hudson, my golden band ringing on the handrail every step, our distance closing.

 

[annaswirls]

Attempt #2

MODEL: I remember the scent of my father, the cologne and cigarettes, the whisky on his breath.

PRACTICE: I remember the scent of my father, axle grease and sweet hay, but not today, he is alive, I will not remember his scent today.

 

[annaswirls]

Attempt #3

MODEL: All that I love tonight -- your body curled beside mine, the vase of white lilies, the one bird calling from the yard -- might be lost tomorrow.


PRACTICE: All that I love tonight, my peanut butter and coffee, the chocolates I hid on the top shelf, might be lost tomorrow.

 

[annaswirls]

Attempt #4

MODEL: If you look at the ugliness of the world -- at the homeless woman lying in a doorway, at her dress of rags and bed of old newspapers you might see a kind of beauty.


PRACTICE: If you look at the ugliness of the world -- the hand at the throat of the defenseless, the lonely droop of the unloved-- you might see a kind of beauty, but I don't.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I remember the scent of my father, the sea and the beasts of the field that await his touch

 

[annaswirls]

four more

MODEL: After the funeral, after the flowers and eulogies, we returned to our lives.


PRACTICE: After the funeral, ___________________________, we returned to our lives.


MODEL: You were the one who took risks, who swam naked in the river, who laughed when the cops came.

PRACTICE: You were the one who took risks, _______________________________.

MODEL: The kitchen counter was dirty, littered with cigarette butts, crowded with unwashed plates.

PRACTICE: The kitchen counter was dirty, _________________________________.



MODEL: Shes cautious, afraid to leave the house at night.



PRACTICE: Shes cautious, _____________________________________________.

 

[annaswirls]

attempts 5,6,8

MODEL: After the funeral, after the flowers and eulogies, we returned to our lives.


PRACTICE: After the funeral,power point slides of photographs and ipod tribute lines, we returned to our lives.


MODEL: You were the one who took risks, who swam naked in the river, who laughed when the cops came.

PRACTICE: You were the one who took risks, falling backwards from the diving board, melting your own lead sinkers, hiding bongs in blankets.



MODEL: The kitchen counter was dirty, littered with cigarette butts, crowded with unwashed plates.

PRACTICE: The kitchen counter was dirty, _________________________________.



MODEL: Shes cautious, afraid to leave the house at night.



PRACTICE: Shes cautious, condoms and bugspray in the bottom of her purse.

 

[EroticOrogeny]

MODEL: All that I love tonight -- your body curled beside mine, the vase of white lilies, the one bird calling from the yard -- might be lost tomorrow.


PRACTICE: All that I love tonight, my wife and son, our humble home, my job might be lost tomorrow.

Here's one try.

 

[normal jean]

MODEL: I wanted to return to that place, the tiny fishing village in Mexico.

PRACTICE: I wanted to return to that place, __________________________________.

I wanted to return to that place, the little creek where my brother and I played every summer.

Originally Posted by annaswirls
MODEL: I remember the scent of my father, the cologne and cigarettes, the whisky on his breath.

2.I remember the scent of my father, Dial soap and gunpowder and the crisp scent of countless new decks of Bicycle Playing Cards.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I wanted to return to that place, the tiny fishing village in Mexico, I left my favourite flip flops there and the new ones hurt my feet